Court ruling may mean jail guards owe county thousands

In a legal decision that could cost Macomb County Jail guards thousands of dollars, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed a 2012 court injunction blocking increased out-of-pocket health care costs dictated by a law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder.

The Appeals Court ruled that Macomb County Circuit Judge Edward Servitto was wrong in January 2012 to issue an injunction blocking the county from collecting insurance payments from employees while union negotiations continued.

The impact of the decision is unclear but the corrections officers have avoided paying up to $388 monthly since Servitto issued his injunction. That might mean that the county declares that those officers owe the county more than $6,000.

The result could be back pay in reverse.

“We were correct that the judge had no reason to enjoin us,” said the county’s chief legal counsel, George Brumbaugh. “But we need to analyze this and look at it very carefully.”

The attorneys representing the corrections officers’ union, James R. Andary and his son and law partner, James G. Andary, could not be reached for comment.

The county’s Human Resources director, Eric Herppich, also was unavailable for comment.

At issue in the Circuit Court case was the 2011 state law that required all public employees in Michigan to pay at least 20 percent of their health care premiums. In Macomb County, an accompanying law that placed caps on so-called “Cadillac health plans” was the sticking point.

The caps that took effect Jan. 1, 2012, limit the cost of public employee health insurance policies to $15,000 a year for families, $11,000 for a couple and $5,500 for a single individual. The corrections officers’ benefits at the time were worth more than $20,000 for a family policy.

The amounts due when the Snyder policies took effect depended on whether a corrections officer signed up for an HMO or PPO insurance policy and whether they fell into the category of single, couple or family.

According to the appellate court ruling by a three-judge panel, the impact on the corrections officers would be: 35 employees will pay $5 or less per month; 28 employees will pay about $44 per month; 11 employees will pay $86 monthly; 64 will pay about $137 monthly; six will pay about $382 monthly; and four will pay $388 monthly.

In the weeks leading up to the effective date of the new state rules, Herppich and other county officials frantically negotiated labor contracts with 23 of the county’s 26 bargaining units. At the time, the warning was to union officials to seal an agreement that is to the benefit of the rank-and-file before the law takes effect.

The corrections officers’ union, the Macomb County Professional Deputy Sheriffs Association, which had already seen its labor pact expire, took a different tact.

It filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state and a union grievance with county officials. One argument presented in those proceedings was that the county intentionally provided faulty information in October 2011 about future paycheck deductions as part of a strategy to present a “take it or leave it” ultimatum at the bargaining table.

When it was initially issued, Servitto’s ruling was seen as having potentially a major impact across the state. The judge’s decision said that new payroll deductions for health care costs could not take place until a new contract with the rank and file is signed. That could have put a major dent in Snyder’s effort to rein in health care costs for state government, school districts and municipalities.

However, the Appeal Court panel ruled that Servitto ignored legal precedent that allows an injunction in labor disputes under rare circumstances, such as the threat of violence or irreparable harm to one of the parties at the bargaining table.

By issuing an injunction anyway, the appellate judges said, Servitto had demonstrated an “abuse of discretion.”